Recent Posts in Wrongful Death Category
| June 24, 2010 |
| Don’t Schedule Elective Surgery For July! |
| Posted By Alan J. Stern |
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2010 study from the University of California San Diego shows that the number of deaths from medication errors in hospitals stayed the same for 11 months of the year but spiked significantly in the month of July. The study confirms a long held suspicion within the medical profession that July, the month when hospitals take in a new influx of medical residents, is the worst time to schedule any type of surgery. The reason for the medical errors stems from the fact that these new residents have little experience of which even the smallest of mistakes can result in fatalities, especially when there are medication errors.
ABC news recently ran a story (June 3, 2010) citing this study and found that patients were more likely to die of medication errors during the month of July at university teaching hospitals where new medical interns and residents were routinely assigned. This is consistent with the tremendously high turn over in hospital support staff during July, complicated by the inexperience of its new medical residents. Few interns or interns are added into the hospital setting during the other 11 months of the year, but rather they arrive all at once, after graduating from medical school each June.
The study was published in The Journal Of General Internal Medicine and consisted of 20 years worth of data (1976-2009), which included 62 million patients at hospitals throughout the United States. It recorded 244, 388 deaths in teaching hospitals attributed to medication errors. One’s chance of being the victim of a medication error was equally distributed over the other eleven months; however, in July it soared, when one’s chances increased by ten percent. Hospitals that were not associated with university teaching hospitals did not see the same “July Effect.” Allergic reactions from medications were not included in the study, nor medication errors found after the patient left the hospital.
The moral of this story: Do NOT schedule elective surgery at a university hospital during the month of July.
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| April 30, 2010 |
| Wrongful Death Statute: Crying for Change |
| Posted By Alan Stern |
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Has your family has suffered the loss of a child or retired elderly parent who may have died as a result of medical malpractice, a car, bus or other motor vehicle accident; a slip or fall, a school, or nursing home accident caused by the negligence of another? It may be shocking to learn that you cannot sue the responsible party in New York State for your emotional distress at the loss of a loved one. Simply stated, a person who is not employed (child) and is not a wage earner (retiree, house wife or child) often does not have much value under the law in New York. Parents suffer additionally when they learn that parents that the loss of their child is considered to have limited or no economic value.
The law must be changed. On April 20, we traveled to the State Capital in Albany with many other plaintiff’s attorneys from across the state to lobby in an effort to change NY’s draconian Wrongful Death Statute. Several New York State senators were in favor of changes to this 150 year old law but the majority of senators were reluctant to do so because it would cost insurance companies more money if they were forced to pay for survivor’s grief resulting from their insured’s negligence.
Please write to your local senator or assemblyman and express your outrage! Insist that justice cries out for this law be changed.
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